Governor Signs Historic Gun Bill

HARTFORD — Flanked by family members of Newtown massacre victims and the legislative leaders who spent three months trying to respond to their tragedy, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Thursday signed a sweeping gun-control bill whose major provisions – including a strengthened assault weapons ban – took effect with the stroke of his pen.

The bill, signed at midday at a ceremony in a packed meeting room at the Capitol, had received final legislative approval shortly before 2:30 a.m. in the House, some eight hours after the Senate had approved it.

Legislative leaders who negotiated the bipartisan compromise bill said it was their toughest-in-the-nation response to the shooting deaths of 20 first-graders and six women on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

"This is a profoundly emotional day, I think, for everyone in this room and everyone watching what is transpiring today in the state of Connecticut," Malloy said before sitting down at a table and signing the bill, bit by bit, with a succession of pens that were then passed to Newtown family members and lawmakers as souvenirs of the historic moment.

"We have come together in a way that relatively few places in our nation have demonstrated an ability to do," Malloy said. "In some senses, I hope that this is an example to the rest of the nation – certainly to our leaders in Washington, who seem so deeply divided about an issue such as universal background checks, where the country is not divided itself."

"When 92 percent of Americans agree that every gun sale should be subject to a background check" – as provided in the new Connecticut law, but not in federal law – "then there's no excuse for representatives or senators who don't come to the assistance of those that they are elected to represent," Malloy said.

His remarks seemed to set up a visit to Connecticut this coming Monday by President Barack Obama, who will visit Hartford in a continuing effort to push Congress to enact tougher gun laws in the aftermath of Newtown. Obama was in Colorado making a gun-control speech Wednesday.

The gun-control effort in Washington has been faltering in recent weeks. Advocates of gun restrictions hope that Connecticut's action will become an example to be followed by other state legislatures – and by members of the U.S. House and Senate. The Senate will take up a limited package of firearms restrictions, including expanded background checks, next week.

A day earlier, state Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, had said near the end of that chamber's six-hour debate on the Connecticut gun bill about 6:30 p.m.: "This is a new and historic model for the country on an issue that has typically been the most controversial and divisive. We in Connecticut are breaking new ground today."

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, whose district includes Newtown, said that since the mass killings, "I've been working, as have others … to see what we can do to heal that community — if we can do anything. What we can do to make Connecticut safer? … I'm proud that we've done that."

McKinney brought a hush to the Senate chamber when he said he wanted to be "the voice" for the Dec. 14 victims – and then slowly recited the names of the 20 first-graders and six women who were shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown by a disturbed 20-year-old, Adam Lanza, who killed himself as police arrived.

The Senate and House votes came after weeks of negotiations between Democratic and Republican legislative leaders, who said they were determined to produce a bipartisan bill as the nation watched closely to see how Connecticut would respond to the tragedy.

The legislation would require universal background checks for purchasers of all firearms, and would immediately expand the state's existing ban on assault weapons. The list of banned weapons would include the Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle used by Lanza. Also, the sale and purchase of large-capacity ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds – such as the 30-round magazines used by Lanza – would be prohibited.

In a compromise, owners of those large-capacity magazines would not be required to turn them in, although their use would be restricted and they would have to be registered with the state by Jan. 1, 2014. Likewise, people who already own semiautomatic rifles defined as assault weapons could keep them if they submit to new registration procedures.

Beginning Oct. 1, all purchases of ammunition and long guns would require an eligibility certificate. To obtain certification to buy ammunition, purchasers would have to pass a federal criminal background check. For the first time a dangerous weapon offender registry will be created and penalties for illegal gun trafficking will be expanded.